Don’t let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do. -John Wooden
Sports have always been there for me. Despite the agony and pain that they can cause, the ability to play has provided some of the greatest lessons I have taken with me throughout my life. Whether playing at the collegiate level or coaching my son’s 5th grade soccer team, there have been consistent truths that follow me and influence the way I coach today.
Sports provide the perfect compliment to academics. I’ve yet to coach a player who has turned pro. Only a few of my players have chosen to play at the collegiate level. Yet, almost 100% of my players have pursued their education beyond high school. While sports may develop character, more often I’ve seen it expose character. Most of the time during school, students work with only a few people seeing and critiquing their work. Failures and successes are viewed by a handful of peers and adults. Yet, in sports the fans and competitors that the athletes perform in front of magnify those same accomplishments. It is imperative that student-athletes learn to confront failure and the lessons it provides. Additionally, they must also understand success is only one step out of many they will take throughout their lives. In sports those students learn goal setting, personal responsibility, commitment to others, leadership, and ethics to name a few. Those are the same skills that are the perfect compliment to behaviors we expect in the classroom. Further, it is through athletics and activities that students find a greater connection to their schools, as they are the ambassadors for how their school is perceived in the community.
Only one person can measure success. In sports the lows can be lower than one would ever expect. When things get tough, I have found they have a way of becoming even tougher. Conversely, the highs never are as great as we expect and last only briefly. The day after winning that championship, it is over and its time to go back to work. Maintaining success requires constant effort. As such, losing is an inherent part of athletics. If I make winning the central tenet of success, my teams and myself will inevitably be disappointed. Inherently then, success can only be measured by the knowledge that the players and coaches tried their best, worked their hardest, for the benefit of themselves and the team. I’ve found that true competitors find greater satisfaction in a game they lost 1-0 and were pushed to their physical and mental limits, versus a game in which they won 10-0, yet weren’t challenged to excel. As a coach it then becomes my responsibility to allow players to set goals for themselves as eventually they are the only ones who know if they have strived to achieve their potential.
Games are won and lost in practice. Soccer, as much as any sport can be, is truly a player’s game. Once the contest begins I have no time outs and there is little play calling to be done. When I moved from playing to coaching, relinquishing that control to the players was one of my greatest challenges. I’ve found that coaches in general tend to control as many of the details as possible, and the most successful coaches are those that prepare for all they can. Yet, in games I had to accept that my players needed to lead. However, I learned early on that come the day of the game there was no magic switch, no secret talk, no special secret that would invariably lead to our success. Instead, as I’ve seen constantly over the years, the team that works the hardest, spends the most time, challenges themselves continually in practice and preparation is that team which performs the best come the day of games. Consequently the bulk of my responsibility as a coach is to provide practices that emulate and reflect the conditions of a game. I must teach my players those skill which will allow them to address all those variables that can be controlled, and just as much allow them and myself to let go of any factors which are outside our power.
It’s 100% mental. Leading from the previous lesson, I’ve found that during practices I can control the level of fitness and drills covering tactical and technical abilities. However, the ability to teach players to stay focused and perform under great pressure is probably one of the most important lessons we as coaches need to impart. Oftentimes girls love to practice more than they want to play in games. Oppositely all boys want to do is play games. Regardless of coaching either, one of the greatest joys I have as a coach is creating a “thinking team.” Once kickoff starts they have two opponents, the other team and the game itself. Invariably, both lead to problems and obstacles that often can’t be foreseen. Add to this the very public nature of sports and the pressures can mount exponentially. As a coach I have a responsibility to prepare my players for the mental challenges just as much as I do for the physical challenges.
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Coaching Philosophy
Matthew Barton
Don’t let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.
-John Wooden
Sports have always been there for me. Despite the agony and pain that they can cause, the ability to play has provided some of the greatest lessons I have taken with me throughout my life. Whether playing at the collegiate level or coaching my son’s 5th grade soccer team, there have been consistent truths that follow me and influence the way I coach today.
Sports provide the perfect compliment to academics. I’ve yet to coach a player who has turned pro. Only a few of my players have chosen to play at the collegiate level. Yet, almost 100% of my players have pursued their education beyond high school. While sports may develop character, more often I’ve seen it expose character. Most of the time during school, students work with only a few people seeing and critiquing their work. Failures and successes are viewed by a handful of peers and adults. Yet, in sports the fans and competitors that the athletes perform in front of magnify those same accomplishments. It is imperative that student-athletes learn to confront failure and the lessons it provides. Additionally, they must also understand success is only one step out of many they will take throughout their lives. In sports those students learn goal setting, personal responsibility, commitment to others, leadership, and ethics to name a few. Those are the same skills that are the perfect compliment to behaviors we expect in the classroom. Further, it is through athletics and activities that students find a greater connection to their schools, as they are the ambassadors for how their school is perceived in the community.
Only one person can measure success. In sports the lows can be lower than one would ever expect. When things get tough, I have found they have a way of becoming even tougher. Conversely, the highs never are as great as we expect and last only briefly. The day after winning that championship, it is over and its time to go back to work. Maintaining success requires constant effort. As such, losing is an inherent part of athletics. If I make winning the central tenet of success, my teams and myself will inevitably be disappointed. Inherently then, success can only be measured by the knowledge that the players and coaches tried their best, worked their hardest, for the benefit of themselves and the team. I’ve found that true competitors find greater satisfaction in a game they lost 1-0 and were pushed to their physical and mental limits, versus a game in which they won 10-0, yet weren’t challenged to excel. As a coach it then becomes my responsibility to allow players to set goals for themselves as eventually they are the only ones who know if they have strived to achieve their potential.
Games are won and lost in practice. Soccer, as much as any sport can be, is truly a player’s game. Once the contest begins I have no time outs and there is little play calling to be done. When I moved from playing to coaching, relinquishing that control to the players was one of my greatest challenges. I’ve found that coaches in general tend to control as many of the details as possible, and the most successful coaches are those that prepare for all they can. Yet, in games I had to accept that my players needed to lead. However, I learned early on that come the day of the game there was no magic switch, no secret talk, no special secret that would invariably lead to our success. Instead, as I’ve seen constantly over the years, the team that works the hardest, spends the most time, challenges themselves continually in practice and preparation is that team which performs the best come the day of games. Consequently the bulk of my responsibility as a coach is to provide practices that emulate and reflect the conditions of a game. I must teach my players those skill which will allow them to address all those variables that can be controlled, and just as much allow them and myself to let go of any factors which are outside our power.
It’s 100% mental. Leading from the previous lesson, I’ve found that during practices I can control the level of fitness and drills covering tactical and technical abilities. However, the ability to teach players to stay focused and perform under great pressure is probably one of the most important lessons we as coaches need to impart. Oftentimes girls love to practice more than they want to play in games. Oppositely all boys want to do is play games. Regardless of coaching either, one of the greatest joys I have as a coach is creating a “thinking team.” Once kickoff starts they have two opponents, the other team and the game itself. Invariably, both lead to problems and obstacles that often can’t be foreseen. Add to this the very public nature of sports and the pressures can mount exponentially. As a coach I have a responsibility to prepare my players for the mental challenges just as much as I do for the physical challenges.